Arsenal: Sharing the Pain- How sensitive should our players be?

Photo taken from Football-TalkI know many Gooners had different views and opinions about Jack Wilshere’s tweets in support of Chelsea last night. When Chelsea scored their third goal, one that brought the goal aggregate of the tie level. Jack took to...

I know many Gooners had different views and opinions about Jack Wilshere’s tweets in support of Chelsea last night. When Chelsea scored their third goal, one that brought the goal aggregate of the tie level. Jack took to Twitter and posted this (as shown above)

“Just jumped up when Lamps scored! I want Chelsea through….English and proud! Come on you blues!

This enraged many more than it pleased some. For the many that were against it, they couldn’t believe that an Arsenal player would go on to cheer for a local London rival in a competition that Arsenal painfully bowed out of at the same stage, and while for those few that were in support of Jack’s cheering, “patriotism” was what most of them gave as the reason.

I’m not the kind that would stupidly send abusive tweets to any player! But I honestly understand why some fans felt hurt by that tweet and where they were coming from, and on my own Time Line I made known my opinion of Jack’s tweet.

See its one thing for a player to congratulate another team upon their success after a game, I mean that’s what we call fair play, right? But for a player to go on and cheer for a local rival, it honestly borders around insensitive.

We fans are of course irrational, sometimes we don’t want to put logic into our reasons for supporting, that’s why we spend loads of money to travel to the furthest of places, sleep in not so comfortable conditions and cheer on even when things are not going so well for the club on the pitch, all in show of support and love of the club we ascribe to.

Honestly thinking, for the 5000 that traveled to Milan this season and saw us giving one of our worst displays for the season and yet still applauded on the players, to see one of our own in Jack Wilshere tweeting in support of a team that snatched our then best left back to progress beyond the stage we’ve failed to advance from in the past two seasons, must be really painful, and it was to many.

See if you’re going to use the excuse of “English and proud” then many would wonder; if it had been Tottenham against another non-English side, would you still support in show of patriotism?

I personally feel if Jack had supported Chelsea in the privacy of his home, wait till the final whistle and then tweet a congratulatory message with a “good luck to Chelsea on the next stage”, many if not all wouldn’t have minded that, all players do that anyway

I think it’d be good of the players to always bear in mind that the clubs they support are global brands with fan bases extending to almost all corners of the world, and therefore, should be a little more careful with what they share with millions in all corners of the world.

Of course, it’s just an opinion and so I expect many to ridicule. But, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict that not long from now, if these behaviors are not curbed, we might find ourselves dealing with something more serious concerning what players share with the public, than just a “Come On You Blues”.